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Army suicides highest in 26 years

WASHINGTON - Army soldiers committed suicide last year at the highest rate in 26 years, and
more than a quarter did so while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new military
report.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its scheduled release Thursday, found
there were 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous
year and the highest number since the 102 suicides in 1991 at the time of the Persian Gulf
War.

The suicide rate for the Army has fluctuated over the past 26 years, from last year's high of
17.3 per 100,000 to a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

Last year, "Iraq was the most common deployment location for both (suicides) and attempts," the
report said.

The 99 suicides included 28 soldiers deployed to the two wars and 71 who weren't. About twice
as many women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan committed suicide as did women not sent to war, the
report said.

Preliminary numbers for the first half of this year indicate the number of suicides could
decline across the service in 2007 but increase among troops serving in the wars, officials
said.

The increases for 2006 came as Army officials worked to set up a number of new and stronger
programs for providing mental health care to a force strained by the longer-than-expected war in
Iraq and the global counterterrorism war entering its sixth year.

Failed personal relationships, legal and financial problems and the stress of their jobs were
factors motivating the soldiers to commit suicide, according to the report.

"In addition, there was a significant relationship between suicide attempts and number of days
deployed" in Iraq, Afghanistan or nearby countries where troops are participating in the war
effort, it said. The same pattern seemed to hold true for those who not only attempted, but
succeeded in killing themselves.

There also "was limited evidence to support the view that multiple ... deployments are a risk
factor for suicide behaviors," it said.

About a quarter of those who killed themselves had a history of at least one psychiatric
disorder. Of those, about 20 percent had been diagnosed with a mood disorder such as bipolar
disorder and/or depression; and 8 percent had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, including
post traumatic stress disorder — one of the signature injuries of the conflict in Iraq.

Firearms were the most common method of suicide. Those who attempted suicide but didn't succeed
tended more often to take overdoses and cut themselves.

In a service of more than a half million troop, the 99 suicides amounted to a rate of 17.3 per
100,000 — the highest in the past 26 years, the report said. The average rate over those
years has been 12.3 per 100,000.

The rate for those serving in the wars stayed about the same, 19.4 per 100,000 in 2006,
compared with 19.9 in 2005.

The Army said the information was compiled from reports collected as part of its suicide
prevention program — reports required for all "suicide-related behaviors that result in
death, hospitalization or evacuation" of the soldier. It can take considerable time to investigate
a suicide and, in fact, the Army said that in addition to the 99 confirmed suicides last year,
there are two other deaths suspected as suicides in which investigations were pending.